Blockchain Helps With India’s Digital Determination

India’s central bank is getting into the blockchain business. A central bank research group will focus on the blockchains. The Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) is the group that will build them.

India wants to use blockchain to help digitize the rupee. The government has already started down that path, even while denying it. It has taken many higher notes out of circulation and says the withdrawals are only temporary, designed to deprive criminals of usage.

But the notes haven’t been replaced and the idea is that India has advanced toward this new goal, without admitting it. There is bound to be plenty of controversy going forward. It has hardly begun.